For the kick-off segment to the series, we've got Salt-N-Pepa and Spinderella modelling summer looks to their own music and hamming it up something spectacular. It is as fantastic as you'd expect. Cheryl and Sandra have remained relevant throughout the years—we’ve seen them disband, star in a reality TV show for VH1, regroup and perform on The X Factor—so this is one of those “DAMN, these ladies were young in 1989!” moments. They aren’t quite media-trained yet, and that's not a dig: You can tell they don’t know what their faces look like onscreen and their voice overs are extra earnest. They dance-model with gusto and they're easygoing about the multiple outfit changes and the lo-fi appeal of the backdrop since most of the fashion show happens in a Mexican restaurant. Literally. As in, with sombrero wallpaper.

The labels range from Katharine Hamnett to Damsels in Distress and from Bryan Early to Betsey Johnson, and Stussy. It’s notable how contemporary recording artists are so conscious of fashion and labels, yet you can sorta tell that Salt, Pepa and Spin aren't completely familiarized. You get to actually watch Salt discover and fall in love with Betsey Johnson clothes during the shoot. If only we could have been a fly on the wall to watch a young Katy Perry put on head-to-toe Jeremy Scott for the first time, or Lady Gaga try on Mugler. That moment of fashion quickening is always wonderful to witness.

Here’s where House of Style gets “television news-magazine”-ish. In this trend piece on the proliferation of style magazines (“style” here denotes “lifestyle” in contemporary parlance), we speak to Gael Love, Editor-In-Chief of Fame. This is a lady who notoriously arrived at the office at 4:00pm to leave at 8:00pm, had previously worked at Interview and was glibly mentioned in Andy Warhol’s diaries. No big deal. After Fame folded in 1991 and several subsequent editorial ventures were dissolved, Love went on to pursue a law degree — a sabbatical from publishing that’s notable for the fact that she also worked part-time at a Chanel store. Hello employee discount.

Another beloved magazine, Spy also ended up folding, and there have been buyouts, relaunches and a coffee table book on the subject since then, but seeing as this is 1989, Spy is green, ruthless and making a huge splash within NYC and L.A. media circles. Hollywood hated them. It was great. Here we talk to a young Kurt Andersen and E. Graydon Carter (the “E” has since been lopped off). They’re so hungry and their eyes glitter with ambition and you can just tell they’re the cool kids of the bunch.

If you’re not familiar with Spy, you should search the Internet for vintage issues and rando scans because it’s one of the funniest magazines in the history of words. Full stop. In this clip, Andersen (who is now a Peabody-award winning radio host and novelist) is wearing dad/Jerry Seinfeld jeans and what appears to be a Gap flannel. He’s got wonderful, floppy, rich-guy hair, and despite looking unassuming, he says evil things like “People ask us, ‘Why don’t you have articles that celebrate people?’ Because that’s not what we do.” Chilling.

Carter, the leonine EIC of Vanity Fair wears a blazer (single-breasted; probably Anderson & Sheppard [a Savile Row tailor he’s since written a book about]) a spread collar shirt with French cuffs (obvi), patterned tie (with a tiny knot [also obvi]), a V-neck sweater and a pocket square. Though Spy would pack it in in 1998, the two would leave in 1991, terming their tenure “The Funny Years.”

Next, we have an interview with Jane Pratt AS A BRUNETTE *thunder clap*. If you’re not familiar with Jane, you’re doing it wrong. She was the creator and EIC of Sassy, a magazine that love-fried everyone's brains because it was a dazzling girls' magazine that talked like your best friend (FINALLY) on any topic, even the dicey ones like suicide, AIDS, and drugs. It also had the best sex advice that was honest and non-judgey and it kills me dead that it doesn't exist anymore. Pratt would go on to launch Jane magazine and the site xojane.com. Oh, and she has blonde hair now. And her eyebrows look different.

Next up: the original Details, which is not anything like the Details you see on newsstands these days. In 1989, Details was an NYC journal that chronicled the goings-on of the city’s underground scene. Here, we interview Stephen Saban, a nightlife reporter, but those of you who have any concept of OG Details probably know it from the documentary about New York Times fashion photography LEGEND Bill Cunningham. Cunningham used to work at Details, and there’s this whole part in the film about how he never once cashed a check from them (not even when it was sold for many, many boatloads of dollars) because he loved the creative freedom of working for free because it granted him license to print his stories at whatever length he chose. Of course, I would've tried to hustle the power and the money but it's because I'm a bad person and he is a unicorn saint.

Bonus Easter egg: This episode aired SO LONG AGO that it recounts the firing of 17-year veteran American Vogue EIC Grace Mirabella, and never once mentions by name the woman who succeeded her—Anna Wintour. I guess she’d yet to prove herself at the helm, which she has since done (understatement). Love you Anna! Never change!

This segment runs through the origin story of the San Francisco label and its creator, Don Fisher, but then moves on to profile Millard "Mickey" S. Drexler, the creative director, who in 1983 enlisted the help of 20 fashion designers to create capsule collections that changed Gap’s brand positioning from the chain store that peddled fuddy-duddy khakis to purveyors of vibrant, relevant and trendy staples. Currently Drexler is the chairman and CEO of the J.Crew group and a director at Apple Inc. because clearly he is a retail genius.

The capsule collections are shown briefly and feature over-dyed espadrilles, floral canvas weekenders and gingham satchels that would all be at home on a display in J.Crew today. There are also racks upon racks of denim overalls, which are so having another moment this fall. The part of the story that’s memorable for the fash crowd is how they hired photographers Annie Leibovitz, Steven Meisel and Herb Ritts to create a black-and-white campaign for print and billboard. Some of you will be too young to remember, but they were these sexy portraits of celebrities and regular folk, each wearing a Gap article incorporated into their regular wardrobe. The one of Jackie Joyner-Kersee in a white sleeveless tee and white underwear with sleek muscles rippling is captivating, mostly because it was an accessible garment shot in a high-fashion way on a gorgeous athletic physique. It was pure art.

DEMOCRATIZING FASHION: HOW TO HACK FRENCH STYLE

Actress Winona Ryder shares her opinion of French style in 1989.Photo: MTV

It’s the Bienniale! Well, at least it was when this segment aired, which means that 1989 marked the 200th anniversary of the French Revolution. To commemorate the occasion, HOS kicked it Francophilic. We look at Chanel suits and... well... knock them off. It's hilarious that a television show would teach you how to hack Chanel but then again House of Style frequently thumbed their nose at straitlaced fashion programming. Speaking of hilarious, there's also this absurd-wonderful moment, without any explanation, where we catch up with Winona Ryder on the set of a video shoot and she’s wearing a wedding dress with a veil and says, “French is very chichi to me…big lips and little dresses.” She smiles goofily in a way that makes her the most beautiful woman in the world and I just really wanted to point it out so we could talk about how she dated Johnny Depp and then later Dave Pirner of Soul Asylum and then Matt Damon when her bestie Gwyneth Paltrow was dating Ben Affleck because I can't be the only one storing such useless information in my head. Right?

OK, so we have no footage of this because we couldn’t clear squat and we only ran it momentarily with the end credits BUT I’d like to high-five series creator Alisa Bellettini for covering the first Love Ball. This was the year former boutique owner, bon vivant, and nightlife doyenne Susanne Bartsch presented the very first Love Ball at Roseland ballroom. Specifically, this is the moment “Voguing” reached the masses (VERY important). Amongst the attendees were Superstar DJ Keoki, Michael Musto (Village Voice), Stephen Saban (Details), Picnic Smith, Steve Rubell (co-owner of Studio 54), Lady Miss Kier and DJ Dmitry (Deee-Lite), RuPaul, Katy K, The Lady Bunny (infamous drag queen), Kim Hastreiter and Mickey Boardman (Paper), Keith Haring, Michael Alig (currently incarcerated for murdering fellow club kid Angel Melendez, which is covered in the documentary and film, Party Monster), Andre Leon Talley, Tony Award winner (and former Mrs. Bob Fosse) Gwen Verdon, Paris DuPree (as in Paris Is Burning), video artist Nelson Sullivan, Chic composer and guitarist Nile Rodgers, and filmmaker David Byrne. Major. The Love Ball has raised millions in the fight against AIDS. Dear Internet: I NEED a three-part documentary series on this subject please. Thank you.

Before he was the silver fox host of The Daily Show, Jon Stewart was a big deal at MTV, helming his own eponymous talk show from 1993-1994. His time slot pitted him against late-night stalwarts like Leno and Letterman, so his run ended up being short-lived. Which is a huge shame because the show was critical for two reasons. One, it featured musical guests who at the time could not otherwise get the shine: Marilyn Manson, Sunny Day Real Estate, Ol’ Dirty Bastard, Slayer and Biggie. Another thing is that the producer of The Jon Stewart Show, Madeleine Smithberg, would go on to create The Daily Show, which has of course seen an extraordinary, award-winning run, with Stewart at the helm since Craig Kilborn peaced in the late ’90s.

In this clip, we see Jon shadowing Cindy on her errands, to comedic effect. He cracks everybody up, but it’s sorta sadface because it’s like watching some poor bastard get “friend zoned” by a hot chick who just wants a smart, funny dude to tag along behind her like some neutered lapdog. They visit Cindy’s modeling agency, Elite, where they go through Cindy’s schedule with her agent and clown around. Jon’s recognized by some of the agency’s new faces, and gets to briefly man a casting couch. The floppy-haired comic then accompanies the model to her mani/pedi appointment at Stephen Knoll. He remarks upon how absurd it is that women sit around “pruning each other” while having his feet massaged and his hands moisturized, and then they hit the gym for Cindy’s workout with trainer Radu. Medicine ball sit-ups and basketball end the day; with Jon smoking cigarettes during his crunches.

On the runways of Chloe, Byron Lars, Chanel, Vivienne Westwood, Anna Sui, Marcel Marongiv, John Galliano, and Thierry Mugler, several trends are in raging for dominance. Underwear as outerwear, as seen in prior seasons, is still going strong, this time with long, spaghetti-strapped slips worn as dresses. Hair is piled high, curled and festooned with trails of ribbons. Anna Sui dominates the grunge baby doll scene with A-line mini-dresses with large collars on androgynous model (and Angelina Jolie ex) Jenny Shimizu, as well as on male models. Another male model, Donovan, does the robot on the runway in a metallic suit (also at Sui). And the late INXS frontman Michael Hutchence walks hand-in-hand with his girlfriend, Helena Christensen at Thierry Mugler. Hutchence has a large silver spike through his nose, and Christensen wears a leather bustier dress covered in spikes and fringe.

The best show is John Galliano’s (discussed at length in an earlier episode). The worst, in my personal opinion, is a rare misstep from Karl Lagerfeld at Chanel. The clownishly exaggerated “hip-hop-inspired” knee shorts with suspenders are unflattering, with a voyeuristic petting-zoo philosophy that borders on racism. The hair is vexing as well: Meant to evoke natural hair that has been poorly relaxed, it just looks bedraggled and messy.

Todd Oldham is a godsend. Here, he teaches us a classic “from the runway to the real world” lesson in layering, starting out with an idea from his own show. For the runway, Todd paired a cropped crochet sweater over a long, patterned georgette shirt; for an alternate version, he advises us to shop in the kid’s section of The Gap for a tiny sweater vest to wear over any filmy shirt. Next up is a nod to the Comme Des Garçons trick of putting a fitted, thin, crew-neck, long-sleeved sweater over a suit jacket or blazer to reveal the large patch pockets of the jacket that now billows out slightly at the waist.

At Rifat Ozbek, a bra is worn over a mock turtleneck to showcase “underlayering” — putting what you’d typically wear underneath over your outside clothes. A prime example of this is to put a tank top over a long-sleeved shirt. Mixing seasons is another way to rethink layers, like wearing a summer dress over a sweater or a white cotton peasant blouse over a thick wool turtleneck. It’s more instruction on how to style things you already own, using cues from your favorite designers. Todd’s cheat sheet is all about understanding proportion, a keen sense of color and a hefty dose of attitude.

In many ways, Sibyl Buck epitomizes the lifestyle aspects of the grunge movement. Kate Moss and Amber Valletta evoke a type of stylized grunge or “fashion grunge,” with their pale skin, doe eyes and seemingly meek dispositions. The critical difference is that they were also both versatile in a way that made them aesthetically malleable depending on the job or designer.

Sibyl Buck, with her septum piercing and dreadlocked red hair, was often hired for her specific look. During a tour of her apartment, we go through her music collection; she cites The Melvins and Bad Brains as favorites. Some headbanging takes place before she shows off her overalls collection; then we’re taken up to her roof to watch her skateboard. She is very much a tomboy — all elbows and knees — and she notes that her clients hate how often she shows up for jobs with scabs all over her legs. Sibyl quit modeling in 1998 to focus on a music career: She currently plays bass for The Lonely Astronauts.

In 1994, long before it was an Olympic sport, snowboarding was still very much defined as an alternative to skiing. The aesthetic, as such, was a sharp departure from neon, preppy, matching outfits, and much more closely aligned with skate clothing of the era. The jackets were oversized and the pants were “phat” (true story) to allow for layering and warmth. The really interesting part of this segment is how far technology has come since snowboarding grew as an industry. Back then, the larger clothing allowed for higher mobility, whereas contemporary textile technology allows for four-way stretch in waterproof, shell-covered fleece that’s infinitely less cumbersome and less reliant on layers.

The snowboarding kids of almost 20 years ago employ an admirable degree of DIY ingenuity to combat such functional shortcomings. They saw off the top of soft boots for added movement, layer boots, wear several mitts or “hot pads” together keep their hands warm, some layers even looking like they’re covered in duct tape. In 1994, snowboarders were still the “pirates of the mountain,” and the long-haired kids freezing their asses off definitely show a great deal of commitment.

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